Input footage requirements

Shutter Angle

Incoming footage targeted for processing by the Time Shaper software needs to be acquired with a few considerations in mind.  Most importantly, it needs to be acquired with a 360° shutter (or as near to it as is possible.)  All this means is that the exposure time matches the frame rate, and the frames are exposed for the entire frame period with no gaps.  So at 120 frames per second, the exposure period is 1/120 second.  

If a shorter exposure period is used, the resulting footage after processing by Time Shaper will have "gaps" between the input frames and will not represent smooth motion.

For cameras without manual exposure control (such as the GoPro Hero cameras), neutral density filters can be used to force the camera to a longer shutter period.  

Frame Rate

When acquiring footage, choose the maximum frame rate possible that is an integer multiple of your desired output frame rate after processing.  For instance, if you want 1:1 motion representation (real time playback) at 24 fps, using a 120 fps (5x) or 144 fps (6x) acquisition rate would work nicely. 

One consideration here is the 1/1001 NTSC frame rates.  If a 23.976 fps output rate is desired, Time Shaper can use 120.0 fps input and "slip" frames occasionally to achieve a true 1:1 realtime playback, or a 0.99:1 playback rate with no frame slipping.  Alternatively, the footage could be acquired at 119.88 fps (if available) to achieve a true 1:1 conversion.  The "slipping" is performed at the HFR level, so it is nearly imperceptible, and is only truly necessary if sound sync is desired.

File Formats

Time Shaper works with ACES (OpenEXR), ARRIRAW, and ProRes file formats.  It cannot cross-convert, so the output format will be the same as the input format.  In the case of ARRIRAW, all metadata is preserved and no demosaicing is performed; the output files appear as though they came directly from a camera at the desired frame rate.  

Time Shaper can also read H.264 input files.  These files will be converted to ProRes when saved. 

ProRes 4444XQ files are supported for input, but not for writing at this time.